It's starting to feel a lot like Christmas!
With a real snow day yesterday, I worked from home. This meant that at 5 when my fiance got home early I could stop working and get into the holiday spirit. The tree went up!
The village I got for xmas last year went up for the first time, this was fun, next time I'll use some batting for snow but I didn't want to go crazy the first time!
And the decorations went onto the mantel. The mantel is generally decorated with dragons and a few xstitch pieces, well those got pushed aside (not removed mind you) so we could cram these little guys in!

And finally a picture of the table runner I completed weeks ago (before thanksgiving when I was sick). It's called Chaos and the only thing I did different from the pattern is that I made the red squares all the same color, the pattern called for the border ones to be different than the inner ones.
Now I'm back to the office, will get home at 6 and maybe do some knitting tonight... OH yea I started knitting again :) I'm making a rabbit - it's grey since I didn't have brown yarn and I'm not quite sure it looks like a rabbit but once I start stuffing it I'll take a picture!

Happy holiday season everyone!

December Goals
1) Finish knitted bunny
2) Add beads to Shepherd's Purse
3) Work on block 8 embroidery
4) Start new cross stitch

November Wrapup:
1) Stitch Bine's NRR and mail [YUP!]
2) Start embroidery on block 8 [YUP]
3) Sew Curtains [just the one pair done so far]
4) Sew table cloth [nope]
5) Add beads to Shepherd's Purse [nope]

Finished Bine's RR!

Added the squirrel and flowers last night! Here's a picture of almost the whole piece, I couldn't fit Bine's house in on the scanner but my house is the one on the right. It's a mixture of pieces, let's see what i remember...
The house is enlarged (to match the others) and from Colonial Homes by Little House Needleworks. The pinetree/grass/flowers is from Bent Creek's The Seasons.

This piece was a lot of fun to stitch, i love that it's in a row! Oh and it's not really crooked, that's just how it got "pushed" when I closed the scanner.

The week is going well so far, leaving work by 5, going home to run/walk on the treadmill, eating dinner and relaxing! Tonight I go to my aunt's house and I have my book to read as well as my embroidery!

Happy Almost Thanksgiving :)

I'm working a 1/2 day today and then we're heading back to NY to do the family thing for 4 days. I really need the break so i'm looking forward to it!

I won't have much stitching time so I'm not bringing Bine's RR with me, I'll do embroidery in the car instead but Bine's RR is still coming along. I finished the large pine tree and just have to figure out what wildlife are living in the yard :) I'll finish it up next week during the evenings!

Hopefully I'll have a picture of Leanne's block 8 after this holiday weekend to show!

Deb's RR arrived safe and sound! Sunday when I was no longer contagious I opened it up to take a peek as well! It looks like a lot of fun!

Also on Sunday I worked on Bine's RR, starting on the landscaping around the house!
Bine's RR is in a row of houses and it's quite fun. After this fun pine tree I can't wait to figure out what critters to add to the front yard in keeping with the rest of the houses!

So I'm pretty much recovered. The doctor said it was strep and put me on an antibiotic. So now I'm no longer contagious as well as feeling much better. I'm back to work (for 3 days this week anyway) :) And raring to go!

Oh and another picture hopefully tomorrow or wednesday, I put together a table runner with new fabric from the quilt show and I can't wait to quilt it! I have to figure out the binding fabrics, probably end up piecing a binding from leftovers.

Out of commission -

It's been since Tuesday really that I've been feeling bad, by Wednesday I had to leave work early because the pain of sitting in a chair was too much. Yesterday and Today are just plain old sick days, i've never needed so much sick time in a row in my life. I've got a doctor appt today to try to figure out what this is..

mostly it's a sore throat, sore neck, sore head, sore back. The throat is the worst and I can hardly eat anything (mostly drink but even that really hurts). No other real symptoms except for maybe a fever or something that's making me have cold sweats. Life is only doable when I'm on ibuprofen unfortunately but at least that's something. I'm waiting for some to kick in now so I can eat some breakfast.

So this means no stitching so far, it's just too painful to sit upright, I've been watching movies, reading and sleeping - maybe today I can be a little more productive but i doubt it. The good news is I might at least find out what this is today and then know how long before I'm better.

Boo hoo for me.

Oh and with all this rain, my occupants of Bine's Neighborhood have gotten flooded out completely, luckily some very nice neighbors have taken them in temporarily while they wait for their roof to be completed. I've promised them by this weekend they should have a dry house.
*wink*

My start on Bine's NRR:

Unfortunately I was feeling too sick last night to continue stitching on this, i'm bringing it to my aunt's tonight in the hope I can put a few hours in. This cold is wiping me out - I'm so achy and tired yet clear headed which is odd for a cold. So I'm staying on pain medicine to see if that helps, so far my neck doesn't hurt so badly (just a sore throat) but my back and head still hurt. Atleast that's 1 less pain.

My decision with regards to work has been made. I've switched my schedule and i'm now working 7:30-5pm and after 5 I'm not checking email at all. No work on weekends either. So far I haven't been able to really enjoy my evenings since this cold is wiping me out but I'm sure I'd be feeling worse with this cold if I wasn't getting the time I'm relaxing and sleeping. So it's all for the good. OH and Monday I walked for 40 minutes, last night I was in too much pain but I hope to get back to it tomorrow for sure.

Kicking myself for no picture and I actually stitched a bit :(

This weekend was tough emotionally. Things at work have been stressful for going on 8 months now. Things have been beyond stressful for the last 4 months. I burned out last summer after a similar time (May-July killed me and August was horrible) now I'm just repeating the same with Sep-Nov killing me.

So friday I went to "The Gathering" with my aunt, it's a quilt show and it was great, but I was stressed most of the time that I was not working. Friday night my fiance and I went out to dinner to celebrate him getting a job offer for next year - very exciting! And after that I decided to just give up for the night and read book 6 in the Sookie series.

Well saturday I was stressed since i hadn't worked and I had a bit of a breakdown. I remember having one last summer so I know I'm just repeating and need to start taking care of myself.

So Sunday in an effort to forget work my fiance and I played Civ 4 for most of the day/night. It was very distracting and fun.

Oh and saturday night around 8pm we popped in P&P and I got a few hours stitching time in on Bine's NRR! The house is now started, I think I'm almost to the roof. I'll try to get a picture shortly. I really need to get cracking on this one as time is running out for November! Yikes!

So I will get a pic soon, and hopefully I can work on it some more.

As for taking care of myself.. I'm talking to some people at work today to get some advice and as far as ME goes - I'm going to get home at a reasonable hour and run everyday. I'm going to go to yoga again and I'm gong to stop working weekends. I just can't do it all and the holidays are coming. I need to laugh it off and stop worrying about other people so much :(

No stitching last night....
because my books arrived from amazon! I read number 5 in the Sookie series - from 8pm-1am and some how still managed to rise this morning.

These books are so great. I also got the Fitzwilliam Darcy trilogy that I can't wait to start this weekend after I've finished all of the current Sookie books that are out.

More info on the sookie books (and others) can be found at my reading blog.

hmm.. it's tuesday, i have a ton of work to do - but all i can think about is reading.. not good!

Oh and I finally started some wedding planning. I won't post anything in this blog about it until I'm actually making things to show (such as flower girl dresses) but it will start taking a bit of free time to do the planning. So far we have a potential list of invitees... step 1!

A weekend away.

That's right, we finally left the house this past weekend :) A visit back home was in order, so we spent 80% of the weekend driving and the rest visiting :) I didn't get much stitching done, with allergy problems (every place we visited had pets and we're both allergic), i couldn't manage much.

I did do a LITTLE embroidery on block 8 of Leanne's BOM. Then last night I started on Bine's Neighborhood RR, I got 2 trees done and I'm ready to start the house now. I love that this one is layed out in a row of houses! I was actually hoping my SB&B order would arrive in time for me to stitch a new house I ordered but something is on hold so I had to move along without it. All well.

So all in all it was a fun if not tiring (due to allergies) weekend with some minor stitching. Next weekend we are staying home and Friday is the Gathering (quilt show) so I'm hoping to have a very inspired craft weekend!

Pictures!!

First here's the Shepherd's Purse, finished except for beading and initials:


And here are my first pair of curtains! They came out great! I can't believe I got them even along the bottom and everything. These are the largest curtains I have to make so they are the hardest too right?? :) I love this fabric!

The curtains didn't take long, maybe an hour and a half. I have fabric for the kitchen curtain and then I have to figure out what to do about my sewing room because it has 3 windows, so i'd need 8 yards of fabric - kind of a problem... unless I do three different curtains...

Next up on the list is either the kitchen curtain or the table cloth for the diningroom.

Note to self on curtains: The walking foot is your friend!

October Goal Recap:

1) Stitch Bine's NRR and mail [Nope] -I'm actually waiting for some charts I ordered from SB&B, they are taking particularly long to get here!
2) Finish piecing Leanne's block 9 [YES]
3) Sew the singer costume for other cousin [YES]
4) Start embroidery on block 8 [Not yet :(]

I did however stitch a new piece! Shepherd's Bush Purse, the stitching is complete and it's awaiting the beading!

November Goals:
1) Stitch Bine's NRR and mail
2) Start embroidery on block 8
3) Sew Curtains
4) Sew table cloth
5) Add beads to Shepherd's Purse

Happy Samhain!

Heading home early (I know 5 isn't early for most but for me it really is!) and we're going to watch scary movies and eat candy while we don't get trick-or-treaters :) I can't wait!

Favorite holiday - hmm.... what to stitch to celebrate!

A reading weekend :) I read the first 4 in the Sookie Stackhouse series and I'm completely addicted. I can't wait to start 5 but I have to be careful, I can't put these books down and I need a good 5 hours to read each. Of course I also don't actually have 5,6,7 in paperback form, I have them all in audiobook form and that goes even slower! I'm considering swinging by the bookstore and getting 5,6 in paperback (7 is only in hardcover) and then doing just 7 in audiobook. It really is a disease!

I did stitch this weekend - Finished all the actual stitching on Shepherds bush purse, just have to do the beading and my date/initials. I'll try to remember to bring it in tomorrow to scan a picture. This was a very relaxing piece and oh i love silks!

Next up in stitching is the neighborhood RR. Time to pull that out and plan what to stitch!

Public Service Announcement...

Due to unforeseen events there may be some delay in posting stitching/sewing/crafting related material to this blog. I am sad/happy/anxiety filled to announce that a new addiction has pulled my full attention away from above mentioned hobbies...

I started reading the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris, first book called "Dead until Dark". The main character (Sookie) is telepathic and the series is about her and her life which includes vampires, a particular vampire she meets in her southern town. The book is very very very hard to put down... so hard so that I was up until 4am last night reading the entire book 1 straight through and now I haven't been able to stop thinking about starting number 2.

So that's my warning - there may be posts along the same lines all weekend if this addiction continues as strong as it has been!

Thank you for the wonderful comments on the costume and everything! I'm hoping to give my cousin the costume Thursday night and hopefully she'll be really surprised!

This weekend went really well, I worked more than i had hoped but I got caught up with work so that felt great! My brother, his girlfriend and my older cousin all came over saturday night to sunday night and we had a great time, watching movies, playing cards, eating etc. Very relaxing.

This week is a little nuts, trying not to work 12 hour days for a change.. oh and my dentist said I need to get a mouth guard due to clenching/grinding my teeth - which is due to stress at work.. yikes. So I'm waiting to pick that up now that they took a mold (which was extremely painful for something so simple).

I'm really really looking forward to this coming weekend, I have a stamp camp to go to and no other plans. We're thinking of finding some place to go hiking! Enjoy the outdoors a little!

Well back to work... gotta love my quick lunch breaks :)

In 2 1/2 hours I have completed the costume (guess I'll be working late and tomorrow ...all well).. but here it is - the Singer Costume:


This costume has no pattern, I just bought the fabric (way too much of it by the way as I could probably make 3 more of these! I think I'm going to make a matching shawl since this is a halloween costume and it might add some warmth.

All in all I'm pretty happy with the dress, I won't show the back because it's not as nice (the furriness of the fabric was touch so I used seam binding where the zipper goes (to help so the zipper doesn't catch on the loose threads) and it's not as pretty as the front. :)

And here's block 9 I pieced up this morning. Now it's time to work work work .. I've been trying to keep a migraine away all day so far and each time I try to use the computer it hits again. So time for some meds and then work :)

Wow my weekend just changed dramatically...

I got a call from my aunt and there's a stomach bug in their family so they canceled their weekend away and I am no longer watching 3 little girls all weekend. I still have my 14 yr old cousin and my brother and his girlfriend coming up but they are all coming up saturday night instead of saturday morning...

So now i have saturday free. Wow. So I can put cleaning off until tomorrow, spend the day just working and maybe get some sewing done that I need to get done.

So on my lunch break I finished piecing block 9 of Leanne's House BOM!!! They're all pieced now! Check that off the list.

I cleaned up my sewing room then and laid out the fabric for the singer costume so hopefully tonight I can start on that! This is all dependent on how the rest of my afternoon of work goes but hopefully it will go well and now if i need to i can work this weekend some as well.

A little stitching progress!

This is my weekend progress. It goes so quickly! I worked on it again last night and got 2 more rows done (the next alphabet row included). I'll post a pic tomorrow - I'm hoping to get to work on it again tonight at my aunt's house. We'll see.

I love stitching, I miss getting to stitch 4-5 nights a week :( I still haven't had sewing time yet either - I'm going to run by Joann's Thursday night to get some seam binding and a zipper for the Singer Costume. Then hopefully start on that?

Looks like we're having lots of company this weekend, my little brother and his girlfriend are coming up now too! Going to be a full fun house!

Work work work... that was my weekend - luckily I'm feeling much better (saturday was a horrible coughing day and i needed a nap just from coughing!).

Anyhow, I stitched a bit more on the Shepherd's Bush purse and hopefully i'll remember it tomorrow to scan in a picture!

With all this working long hours I've decided a few things need to get done this week no matter what -
1) the singer costume - needs to get done this week actually
2) Block 9 of Leanne's Quilt - I need to just piece it already, it's halfway there and I need to get it pieced and out of the way before the little girls all come next weekend.

I'm not sure if i mentioned it but my 3 little cousins will be staying with us this weekend, (ages 8, 6 and 3 1/2) - they're parents have a wedding to attend in PA so we agreed to watch them, so my sewing room will become a little girls' room and i need to pick up!!!

Well back to work so I can work late and figure out how to get all that done at the same time :)

Two days sick and I actually get a little evening stitching time so I have something to show!!

It's been quite some time since I started something new and being sick it had to be something kitted up so I pulled out my Shepherd's Bush Purse kit I bought a while back. I love to work with silks when I can and this piece is so sweet and delicate. I've kind of jumped around and since I'm not doing the beading yet I'm also not doing the flower buds that aren't beads so i can do them all at once. The blank spot is for initials and date and I'll save those until I'm closer to finishing.

It felt SO good to stitch, even if I had to take breaks because it tired me out (i've been really sick) but today i'm feeling much better and i'm at work for the long haul. I think i may take a small lunch break and stitch for 20 minutes! It's been almost a year since I did that :) I need to take care of myself more so we'll see.

Anyway, I'll be working all weekend so there won't be much of a stitching update but maybe i'll have a little free time to start the other halloween costume I'm to make for my other cousin (she wants to be a singer). So maybe pics to come, we'll see.

I apologize for being incommunicato lately -- work has been Busy with a capital B... I've been working 12+ hour days for a week and a half and then two days ago i came down with the horrible cold that's been going around (not surprising with my level of stress!).

So i'm way behind on both blogging and blog reading.. not much to blog about though since i'm working so much. I did cross stitch last night after a day of doing nothing but trying to sleep - started a new piece - pictures coming soon! I didn't get much done but it was something :)

September Goal Wrapup:

1) Finish Leanne's block 7 [YUP!]
2) Finish Neighborhood RR block and mail [YUP!]
3) Finish Leanne's block 8 [nope]
4) Finish piecing Leanne's block 9 [nope]
I also sewed both a skirt for myself and the pirate costume for my young cousin (just turning 8).

I'd say not a bad month considering it was such a busy one work wise!
And now for some new goals: (or more of the same :)

1) Stitch Bine's NRR and mail (I want to get this to Leslie early so she has time before the baby comes!)
2) Finish piecing Leanne's block 9
3) Sew the singer costume for other cousin
4) Start embroidery on block 8

A weekend of Pirate Sewing!

Well the costume was much easier than I was worrying about. Of course it still took all weekend but that's because my fiance and I pulled the tv and dvd player into the sewing room and watched The Office and Firefly on dvd while I sewed. I'd say total it took maybe 12 hours (less than sleeping beauty!). I did not make the jacket (i didn't buy fabric for it) and I think it's fine without. I also did not add the buttons to the vest yet, I may do velcro and just add buttons for show but I have to go buy some suitable buttons still!

Here are some pics!! The costume as a whole:

A better picture of the blouse and knickers. I love the blouse it came out adorable!

And the boots - boy these were a pain to sew. They are pleather and that stuff does not go through the machine well (it catches). It was impossible to just sew regular, finally I got the bright idea to use the extra pieces of pattern paper and sew through that, allowing it to feed easier. Then after completing the first boot and half way through the second I realized I could use my walking foot! Oops. That worked much better and there was no paper ripping to do .. haha -- well I learned!


So that's what my weekend consisted of! Now I'm getting some work done, I wish I had done more work this weekend but I had such a fun weekend instead, all well - that's life!

Now back to work - maybe another hour before bed!

Work and Life.

Well work yesterday was a very bad day. I had a bug and I made no progress at all - I just found and fixed the bug this morning - a serious 24 hours of wasted time later! Yikes and I was already a little behind schedule! But it's working now so hopefully today will be a good day ... fingers crossed.

Let's see ... life .. well I've been RUNNING! 3 miles of running and walking a day (Sun, Mon and Tues) so far! It's great. Tonight I go to my uncle's but i'm hoping to run Thur, Fri and on the weekend!

Monday night I went to Joann's and bought a Pirate costume pattern and most of the needed fabric. What is this you may ask???? Well I've been asked by my cousins for halloween costumes/birthday presents again this year. So the oldest is a pirate and the middle is a singer. The singer is easy, I have some fun fabric for the skirt and i just need some matching top fabric.

The pirate on the other hand... yikes... 70 dollars later (pattern/fabric/accessories) and I'm looking towards an entire weekend of sewing and probably won't get the jacket done (there are boots, pants, shirt, vest and jacket). She may get the jacket after her birthday just before halloween! There are a lot of new things in this costume that i've never done before (elastic, buttons, cuffs etc). It will be interesting and a real learning experience (not a bad thing!)

So hopefully there will be pirate costume pictures come monday! In the meantime that is what I'm devoting any free time to in the evenings so I won't have any other progress pictures.

I mailed out the NRR to Leslie yesterday, thank you for all the wonderful comments on it, I really enjoyed stitching it and each one of these RRs will be so memorable to me because of my love for each house (So far i've stitched very favorite houses I've always wanted to stitch!). I really hope Karen likes what I stitched for her! And soon I'll be getting Bine's and picking out a new house to temporarily stay in :)

Well my code is almost done building so it's back to work!

Karen's RR - Finished late last night :)

I (like Leslie) stitched a variation of Daisy Lane Cottage, although I pretty much stitched all of Daisy Lane and then just added some animals in the yard for fun!
Here is all of the houses that have been stitched to date. I apologize for the picture quality is was late last night and it was very hard to get good lighting. The flash just washes things out :(
I stitched up a turkey family, a bee hive (Carol added some bee's so I thought that would tie it together) and then some robins. This was a real pleasure to stitch and I've always wanted to stitch this chart as well!

This weekend was great. Saturday I cleaned the house then we settled in for some tv/movie watching and I stitched! Sunday I finished reading my book and then after a 3 mile run on the treadmill we went out to lunch and then continued the tv/stitching marathon where I was able to finish the house!

Now for a week of work work work and then next weekend probably some sewing of costumes?? :)

Wow, thanks for all the wonderful comments! When I started blogging a few years ago I never imagined anyone would actually read my blog, I sincerely journal for my own well being but it's so touching that others follow along and even comment! I'm very grateful!

Well the new treadmill arrived yesterday! I'm not sure if I shared this story but our treadmill (almost 2 years old) cracked - the metal frame cracked! It's under extended warranty so we called and they have to replace it (can't repair it). So they gave us credit towards a new machine. Well we looked and looked and finally decided to upgrade! For a few hundred dollars we got a treadmill with a 7" screen! So we bought a $30 dvd player last night and now we can watch DVDs right on the treadmill. This means we don't have to have a treadmill in our livingroom!

This of course doesn't help the current situation since the old treadmill is still in the livingroom (unusable at this point). We're thinking of trying to weld it back together so we have 2 working treadmills. Some day we'll have an actual house and will make a home gym in a basement or back room and we can run side by side.

Anyhow so it was a long night of putting the treadmill together, after which I crashed (long day fighting migraines really wears a girl out!) No stitching :( But I'm really really looking forward to this weekend - we have NO plans and I plan to do a lot of stitching! I hope to finish Karen's NRR and do some embroidery as well! I can't wait! - Man i wish it was friday ;)

As promised here's a progress picture! I finished the actual house on Karen's RR last night and I'm going to be working on the greenery now! I'm doing Daisy Lane cottage with modifications (I notice Leslie is doing the same on Carol's right now - great minds think alike! :) )

And the skirt in it's finished state. I did manage to finish it friday night but I could not wear it saturday as I'd hoped, i have nothing to wear that goes with it! So I bought some patterns of tops I like, but I did not have time to get coordinating fabric as yet. I will do this soon!
The weekend was a good one - Saturday I bought my wedding dress! It was definitely more expensive than I had hoped but I'm very happy with it and I know I made the right decision. So if i can save money by doing alterations myself with a friend I think it will work out.

Plus with the dress done I've now settled on colors for the bridesmaids! We're going with a light honeydue green and lilac accents! So now i'm on the hunt for fabric to make the flower girl dresses (5 of them!).

Sunday and today i've been plagued by migraines but i seem to be doing better now and our new treadmill arrived so it's back to running daily and getting in shape! I hope to post a little more regularly as well. I'm going through my pictures, uploading, ordering prints and planning my scrapbook as well as I've really lagged behind (a year and half behind!) and I don't do that much scrapbooking, just a page per event!

I can't believe I forgot to post this sooner...

So monday night my sister called me and... she's engaged!! YAY! I'm so glad, because now we can plan our weddings together and everything, it's great! Well that put me in a great mood so I went into my sewing room (to kill some energy) and decided to sew a skirt. I have yet to actually finish making something for myself (still) but I have a number of skirt patterns and fabric I like so I picked an easy one.
This is unfinished:
I didn't realize it was a MISS pattern instead of regular so I'm a size 10 instead of 4-6 so I was very doubtful through this whole process, until i talked to my sewing friend who said - oh check, it's probably a MISS's - it is! So it's not finished, I didn't have a zipper lying around so I had to stop when I got to that part, I also think I want to add a lining so I'll pick that up when I get a zipper (tonight?) and then I'll still have to hem.

It's a somewhat thick woolish black/red fabric. The weave is very loose (hence the lining) but it's comfy and a little stretchy and will go great with a black top. When it's really finished I'll post a better picture of it. The above was taken in my hallway mirror at night.

Hmm... the rest of the week was mostly work. Tues I worked till 8:30, Wed I went to my aunt's/uncle's and last night I worked until 7 and then crashed on the couch.

Today however i'm working from home, i'm motivated and really hope to get a lot done and then spend the evening sewing (finishing the skirt) so i can wear it tomorrow? I may need a top to go with it!

Tomorrow I go dress shopping with my mom and sister (we're both trying on dresses!!) and i'm hoping to actually buy mine! Then I can be done with one thing! There's so much left to do and I've been putting it off because I want to do the planning with my sister so I didn't want to "get to far ahead" :) Anyway it should be a really fun weekend!

A great weekend!

And a picture of Leanne's Quilt block 7 finished!


This weekend was really great, I worked late friday night but our tv shows (Psych and House) are on really late so I didn't miss them. Saturday we essentially did nothing, which included going for a run, a quick run to Marshall's (birthday gifts) and then some good old stitching!

I started Karen's Neighborhood RR, I'm starting from Daisy Lane Cottage and have quite a few ideas of other things to add. I have half the fence done and a decent start on the house! This was while watching Pride and Prejudice (favorite all time movie and 5 hours long). Well that lasted well into the night (2am) so it was a nice long day!

Today was a family day, we slept in (I need my 8 hours) and then we went to lunch with the cousins (the middle one just turned 6 yesterday). So it was a fun day out.

And to end it all I came home and re-orged my sewing room to fit the new treadmill coming this week! It's quite large so I really had to be creative but if it's the same size as our current one I think I made room! And I still have an office corner, a sewing corner and now all the scrapbooking stuff is in the closet. I'm very very happy after 2 hours of organizing!

Now I'm logging in to work to get a jump start on tomorrow. I'm really motivated at work right now and need to keep it up. Plus I'd like to leave at a more reasonable time in the evenings this week and squeeze in some stitching on the round robin!

Camping Weekend!

A little touch of Knox, that's what we like at least once a year. My family (parents, sister and her boyfriend, my fiance and I) - my brother could not make it this year... went camping at my parents' property last weekend. Wild flowers were in bloom...
Lots of lively colors in the fields and woods:
These spruce trees were planted by us as children 15 years ago - this is just one field that we lined with 3 rows of spruce, we also lined a second field...
Our bedrooms for the weekend (my sister and I have matching tents and love to do the setup and take down ourselves as tents have come a long way since we started camping!).
Our kitchen area too has come a long way, with a foldup canopy (as opposed to just tarps we have to tie up), and an actual foldup kitchen and table - both new this year - we used to just rely on the picnic tables my dad made! Setup was very easy this year!
The puppy (she's 8) got to do a lot of swimming and tuckered herself out!
This is where we all set pretty much 50% of the time :)And the beaver house (there were actually 2) that is newly built on our old swimming pond. They moved over from the "beaver pond" a few years back and have done some major demolition of the beautiful birches :( My sister's boyfriend got some pictures of the beavers out and working, I'll post those once she gets them online.

All in all we had a fantastic weekend, the weather was better than we could even have hoped for! Lots of good food and much more time to relax than usual. Now that we have two ATV's to help bring the camping stuff from the cars back to the campsite (about a mile in) and to help gather firewood, things go quickly. My dad also bought a brush hog that can be pulled by one of the ATV's so he didn't even have to bring up a tractor to mow!

Oh it was fun - but I honestly didn't touch my stitching! I read quite a bit and we played cards. You're hands are never really clean while camping (no running water and all) so stitching wasn't really desirable. I did however finish the embroidery on Leanne's Block 7 last night! Now onto block 8 after I finish the next Neighborhood RR block!

September Goals:

1) Finish Leanne's block 7
2) Finish Neighborhood RR block and mail
3) Finish Leanne's block 8
4) Finish piecing Leanne's block 9

Keeping it simple this month, obligation stitching does that to me :)

August Wrap up:

1) Finish Page 2 of Celtic Banner [YES!]
2) Finish block 7 of Leanne's Quilt [almost]
3) Piece block 8 and 9 of Leanne's Quilt [8 is pieced!]
4) Start next Neighborhood RR house :) [not yet - plan to start when we get back!]

Long Weekend, short week!
First an update on the long weekend... Saturday and Sunday were regular weekend days, I cleaned the apartment, went shopping then we went over to some friends' house for dinner and cards. Sunday more shopping, then over to my uncle's house to play with the cousins.
Monday and Tuesday however were free days! I did some stitching:

That officially marks the halfway point on Celtic Banner! Page 2 is complete! I was very very excited!
Then I did a little quilting:

That's Leanne's quilt block 8 pieced, ready for applique and embroidery!
And:
I started block 9, just a little piecing. It was so much fun! I've just been working the last three days (today from home). Last night I went to stitch and continued to work on block 7 embroidery which is ALMOST done!

This weekend we are going camping with the familiy, annual thing. I need to stop working at a reasonable time, pack all our camping stuff and drive back to NY. Then tomorrow we head up to the campsite and make camp for saturday-monday. I should get some stitching done but more likely lots of reading.

That's all - hopefully more pics next week!

Embroidery progress...
This is my progress on block 7 of Leanne's Quilt. The basket and tulips have satin stitching for the handle/decoration and stems. This is taking forever!!! I think I'm almost done though but this is wicked hard to get straight nice stems. All well, I've pretty much given up ripping it out and redoing it, I'm just trying to finish it at this point because there's more embroidery in this block after that still!

I've been working on Celtic Banner a little, I only need about 2 1/2 more hours before I have page 2 completely finished which will be the halfway mark!!! I'm working on the quatrefoil motif and completely loving it. Once I finish page 2 of that and the embroidery on block 7 I will start on my next Neighborhood RR house which has been patiently waiting for me!

I know I don't talk about wedding stuff much - pretty much because I don't think about it much but this past weekend my sister and I went wedding dress shopping and it was much more successful. I have some good ideas about what I like now and I'm looking forward to going again and hopefully even choosing one next time!

PS. The wedding is a year away, I promise I won't blog about it for the whole year!

Unmotivated...

That's me.. lately. Of course pair that with a constant allergy attack that started yesterday morning and I'm not getting anything done! The sneezing just started up again a minute ago and I was just starting to think i was doing better today. Ho Hum!

Sorry there's no picture yet of my block 7 -- I will try to remember to take it tonight. I have worked on it a tiny bit lately and I'm starting to get closer to the end of the block! It's a lot of embroidery though!

Well I just thought of a task I wanted to get done quickly so I'm going to do that before I write up my to do list for the day!

Okay i'm back to blogging. I enjoy blogging more when i have a picture to show but alas I don't have time enough to make progress on pieces which I can take a picture of. Surely monday will have pictures from this weekends' progress :)

This week has been rough, the stress of work hit me immediately upon return, I'm having a tough time dealing with it which is very odd because in general I love my job, really do. Lately I'm not feeling it, just anxious and stressed out.
I think I need to get back into an exercise routine, I really think that will help and a fresh week next week as this week was just a bust.

I have done a little stitching. I worked on the next band for Celtic Banner one night, i should be able to finish that band pretty quickly and then there's just one more before I hit the half way mark! Amazing!

I also picked up my embroidery last night! That's Leanne's Quilt block number 7 which I haven't touched in ages. I was running out of DMC last time I worked on it so I kept putting it off but now I'm restocked in colors and working on my basket. This block has the absolute most embroidery just because there's so much satin stitching for tulip stems and basket handles and such. I'll show a progress photo monday for sure!

Well this weekend should be fun, we have our summer outing for work on saturday with all you can eat ice cream and lunch. Then we're driving back to NY and going to Saratoga race track on sunday with friends. We missed out last year but really enjoyed it the year before so that should be fun!

I've finally caught up on blog reading, I apologize I did not comment for the most part because I had so much reading to get through but now I'm caught up and back to a more normal number of posts to read a day!

Pictures!
That's right, i'm actually coming through in a timely manner with pictures! I worked exclusively on Celtic Banner while on vacation and as I stitched along on the large square that follows the alphabet, i filled it in color by color. I got to a point where I decided I preferred the look I had to that of the "finished" look where it's completely filled in (my stitching friend had already finished hers so I had it to compare to). So I stopped and called it done:
That sure made it go faster! Then I continued on and did the next set of motif's - I had a little trouble - okay a LOT of trouble and just as I was finishing up the second one I realized I was a stitch off! And the mistake was in the first one so I had to unstitch the whole second one and part of the first and start over! But I pushed on and with a tiny bit of purple to finish last night here are the next 2 motif's finished:
Also in Maine we made some more tile coasters with our stamp sets. I made 3 sets but only finished one set, the others are yet to be colored in. Here is the finished set I made:
These are a lot of fun to do and really practical as coasters!
So that was pretty much my vacation in Maine! I stitched and we listened to some audiobooks!
Before I went to maine we stayed at my parents' house for a few days and helped out, we demolished an old pheasant coop, staple by staple! And we took down a crab apple tree and did some pruning of trees and bushes. It was hot and sticky out but it was a nice change of pace to work outside for a change! I love vacation and surely wish it was longer!

I'm not feeling very rested actually and that's bothering me. I still feel as I did before I went on vacation and that includes the headaches, they were completely gone for my vacation but came back as soon as I got to work yesterday! It doesn't help that I haven't been sleeping well the last two nights either. I will have to do something about this as soon as I can but for now, work beckons!

August Goals:

1) Finish Page 2 of Celtic Banner
2) Finish block 7 of Leanne's Quilt
3) Piece block 8 and 9 of Leanne's Quilt
4) Start next Neighborhood RR house :)

I don't think I can put Celtic Banner away for a while as I had a blast working on it so that will be my main piece when I'm not working on the round robins!

Back from my vacation! I'll have a full post with pictures maybe tomorrow.. for now I figured I'd do my goal wrap up from July and figure out goals for August!

July Goals:
1) Finish Carol's NRR and mail out! [YES!]
2) Finish Leanne's block 7! [Nope not yet]
3) Finish fishy part of fishy pin [YES!]
Also worked on Celtic banner a LOT and made great progress over vacation!

Vacation..

Well i haven't been posting much because work has been a little crazy - now I won't be posting because I will be on a MUCH needed vacation from work. We're not going anyplace except where we are now - back at my parents' house for a few days and then I head up to Maine for a few days at my friend's family cabin and lots of stitching!

I think this will be a great week off from work, the end of the week will be lots of stitching and the beginning will be some working outside and just relaxing, playing computer games like tonight and reading!

So I'll be offline for about a week - with pictures next week of my Celtic Banner hopefully!!!

As promised - a picture!

Here is Carol's RR with my house all finished. It's Woodland Cottage from Elizabeth's Designs with modifications and of course it's not the entire piece. There are a lot of things I like about this piece, the trees are one of my favorite things.

Well my fiance is off on day one of the Bar Exams!!! I'm up in Concord, NH working from the hotel awaiting his return at 4:30? We watched Dejavu last night which I thought was a pretty good movie. We have Breakfast at Tiffany's tonight. It's been a while since he's been able to sit and watch a movie.

Well back to work, at least it helps pass the time without me worrying :)

Stitchy weekend for sure!!! I can't wait to show pictures - I'm going to try to remember to take them tonight before i head up to Concord.

I FINISHED stitching my house on Carol's RR!! It was such fun and I got to stitch most of one of the charts I really like with some major modifications but still, now I feel like I've stitched the chart and can call it "finished" in my stash :)

I'll probably get that packed up and mailed out by the end of the week to Leslie.. this week is a little busy because the Bar has finally arrived! My fiance has 3 days of 6 hour testing (Tues-Thur) and I'll be staying with him at various hotels to help him get up in the morning for them. Tonight and Tomorrow night are up in Concord, NH so instead of a crazy long drive I'm going to just work from there tomorrow. That way I can be supportive and be there when he gets back from his first day of testing.

It's all over on friday!!! I can't wait and next week I'm taking as vacation time! Very much needed!!!! for both of us :) I will definitely have stitching to show after that!

Still around. I haven't been in the blogging mood, I am trying to stay on top of reading blogs, I apologize if I'm not commenting much but I am reading when i find time! Anyhow, part of the reason I haven't been posting is just lack of material, I pretty much just work lately, not much to talk about.

I have had some time to stitch. Last night would have been great but we lost power for a few hours and I can't stitch on 40ct by candle light so I wound thread on bobbins instead.

I've been working on Carol's Neighborhood Round Robin. The house is almost finished and then I can do the landscaping. I'm not worried about making the deadline at least , even with the small amount of stitching time I've had I've managed to get the bulk of the house done. I'll probably try to post a picture on monday!

This weekend is my last weekend house sitting. I will hopefully relax a bit and stitch - maybe sunday when I get home - and otherwise I have some cleaning to do (both at the house I'm staying at and when I get home). Unfortunately it's going to be just one of those weekends that disappears on me I know it.

I really thought I was going to have stitching every night, with lots of tv shows and/or movies. Boy how things change. The first change is that I've been working every night way more than I had planned - last night I worked till midnight! Secondly, my fiance decided to come down and study for his Bar Exams in the air conditioned house (our A/C is broken) so that limits the tv to his break times which include an hour for dinner and maybe after 9pm if he's gotten studying done for the day.

But that's not the real hold up - it's a new game I found - called Chocolatier - you make chocolates and create a chocolate empire throughout the world. It's SO addicting because it's easy but challenging at the same time. Easy because I never got close to running out of money or not finishing a puzzle but still challenging because there's a lot going on to keep in mind. I have played every free second I do have and I've almost beat the game which just spurs me on to beat it already so I can go back to my normal life - very bad. I'm even considering playing on my lunch break today - bad bad bad!!!

Tonight I am promising myself I will stitch! Maybe I'll start Grey's Anatomy on my laptop or listen to my audiobook, either one would be great. ... can't wait!

Carol's Neighborhood RR start:
Finally a picture! I know it's not much but it's a start, the house is from Elizabeth's Designs "Woodland Cottage" with modifications. The grey is a stone foundation and I decided to stitch the house red (instead of white) and I think I'm going to use black - like wrought iron - in place of the green, not sure yet.

Last night was a long night of working. I worked much later than I had hoped so no stitching. Tonight I plan to do a little work and then get right to stitching. I have a movie I want to watch so I can return it to the library so that's 2 hours of stitching right there!

Story of my life, I forgot to take a picture of my progress.. that's right - I stitched finally!! I don't think I've properly stitched since my Neighborhood RR at the end of May, beginning of june.

I re-started on Carol's Neighborhood RR, got a couple of hours in! I find it difficult changing colors on a pattern but I do not like the house color on the pattern I'm using, even though I like the style house, so I'm trying to change it and hopefully tomorrow I can show a picture!

This weekend was very relaxing, Saturday I spent the morning packing for my 2 weeks of house sitting, then moved my stuff down to my Uncle's. I went out Saturday night to stitch with friends. Sunday I relaxed all day, watching movies, stitching and winding floss. It was great - minus the migraine I got but my medicine worked okay.

Now I'm in for a week of working and hopefully stitching in the evenings! I have movies and tv shows lined up! I sure will miss my fiance though - he's busy studying anyway but still. I can't wait to see him next weekend!

Oh IKEA joy!

That's what I did on the 4th! I went to IKEA! I sure do love that store, we spent about 3 hours walking around. I had a gift card so I guiltlessly bought little kitchen things (including a set of silverware - finally i can get rid of the old mismatched pieces I have).

On the stitching front, while I did pick up "stitching" it was to unstitch what I had started on Carol's NRR. I mentioned before that I had forgotten to leave room for the grass, so I unstitched that last night - no biggie. I'm hoping tomorrow to get to start over, with the grass first this time!

Also starting Saturday I am house sitting for 2 weeks. This means no regular access to my crafty stuff :( Tomorrow will be packing anything I might need ( I can stop home on weekends a bit )... plus it's good timing with the fiance studying for the Bar Exams, it will keep the apartment quieter for him.

I'm hoping to get stitching done - first Carol's RR, then maybe some embroidery on Leanne's Quilt, I sure have missed that one!

Okay back to work - what is up with allergies these past few days - driving me crazy!

July Goals:
Well this will look familiar :)
1) Finish Carol's NRR and mail out!
2) Finish Leanne's block 7!
3) Finish fishy part of fishy pin

June Wrapup:
1) Finish Neighborhood RR and mail out! [YES!]
2) Finish Leanne's block 7! [Haven't touched it :(]
3) Start Carol's NRR [Yup - just a tiny tiny bit]
4) Frame Peaceful Silhouette! [Nope :(]

Evidently the summer is not a great stitching time for me.. but that WILL change! I'll be house sitting for 2 weeks with Central Air and not much else to do (besides work). I plan on watching Gray's Anatomy and stitching on Carol's NRR.

I did start on Carol's NRR this weekend but I think I want to rip out what I did because I forgot to leave room for the grass flowers underneath the house and with the house being short I might need the height. I only stitched one length of grey stone as the base of the house so I'll just pull that out and start over.. probably tomorrow night!

Still alive and kicking... trying to beat the heat .. holy moly it's hot out - and our A/C is not working in the new apartment!!! I basically can't do much at home, i lay there and try to work but I'm too hot for the most part.

And some news .. we bought a "new" car! It's not new new, it's a 2000 BMW 328 with ~ 40,000 miles on it. We're hoping to get it before the end of the week, if we can go sign the paperwork tonight. Yippee - I really like hte BMW 3 series!

Tonight I go over to my aunt's house - and they have A/C so maybe I'll even get a little stitching done. Tomorrow night is stitch night down in Lexington, I'm most likely going to hit that up so I can see all my friends, it's been so long (except for those I saw on Sunday). And this weekend is busy busy - I can't wait!

I love summer, especially the eary summer! The cool mornings - sitting here with the door to the porch open and cool air coming in while I work laying on the couch... ah!

This weekend was great! I got the apartment completely cleaned and organized before my sister even arrived on Saturday so I was stress free! Then she and I went wedding dress shopping!

I tried on 4 dresses and while I really liked 3 of them, 2 of them are in the actual choosing. The one I think I like the best they only had in a size too large so I couldn't get the right idea about how it would look from behind - the front she was able to pull so we could see how that would look. I have a year and 2 months so I'm not in a rush and I really didn't expect to just pick a wedding dress already because I was very very picky about certain things - but it turns out when you go in and say "I want this, this this and none of this, this or this" they can just give you what you want - sometimes!

So that was fun! And when we got back (after doing other shopping as well) we started cutting out ideas and pictures to put in my wedding planning scrapbook. Including pictures of the two dresses, bouquets and cakes.

Enough about that - Sunday was my party and everyone made it - it was great! The only hitch was that the road/complex sign had been taken down for maintenance so everyone had trouble finding the place - what are the chances!!! I swear, I'm cursed, my last party at my old apartment (over a year ago) - they happened to close the roads in town that day and everyone got lost!

The party was fun and I think everyone had a good time, it was done and over with by 5:40 and I was able to clean up and relax by 6! It was great. Then after dinner and some tv I spent a few hours working which has made today stress free because I got my code working last night and now I'm just tweaking things!

Oh what a great weekend. Now back to a normal life with stitching! I can't wait to start Carol's RR this week!

Party!!

I know I've been slacking in the blogging world lately. Things have been busy! And there's no stitching to report, I haven't touched it!

I'm having a party on Sunday! A couple of my friends and a bunch of family are coming over, this party was my incentive to get completely unpacked in a month and I managed to do so! Last night with the bookcase finished I was able to "finish" my craft room! My bedroom is now finished with the new dresser!

I just have to pick up the livingroom and diningroom, move some stuff to the basement and clean! Cleaning will be tomorrow morning and moving things to the basement I'll do today! I'm very excited - can you tell by all my exclamation points :)

The party is 2pm on Sunday and I have some baking and preparing I will be doing tomorrow night and sunday morning. My sister is coming tomorrow and we're going to do some shopping - including shopping for a Bridal Dress! My first official wedding related shopping trip :) So that should be fun too.

Pictures of the craft room and other finished rooms will be coming very soon!

Yeah the dresser is done:
Here's the dresser all done and already in use, although we don't use the tv when we're in bed at least we can now see it (the bottom of our bed is very high).

Last night I put the second coat on the bookcase and I'm hoping tonight to do the last coat on that! That will leave only the sofa table unfinished and maybe by the end of the summer I'll have finished that :)

No stitching or anything to show :( I do hope soon to get back to stitching as I have Carol's RR to start up!!

I forgot to post a picture.. I will post it tomorrow. I finished the dresser this weekend! Knobs and all! And I got one coat of poly on the bookcase which took about 45 minutes so I think I can handle the last two coats Monday and Tuesday this week!

Also this weekend I got some old closet shelves from my dad and sanded and painted them (they were really really old and ratty!) I'm looking forward to adding them to my closet tonight and organizing my craft room closet a little, getting that room a little closer to done!

So pictures coming tomorrow for sure! I hope to have a very productive night!

No news, last night I went to my cousin's middle school graduation, then out to dinner. It was a nice but late evening. We got back around 10:30, after help fix up the new router for my uncle I crashed.

Got in to work early today though and hopefully I'll have a good day, leave at 3:30 to beat traffic, work a bit more from home and then finish the dresser! Then tomorrow we drive back to NY to see family - oh man i have to get some father's day gifts tonight!!!

Well I haven't done anything more with the furniture but I figured I'd show some more pictures. Here are the bookcase and sofa table, first unfinished and second - stained (no poly still).
The shelves are separate.
Here it is stained.
Sofa table - behind the couch where it will stand when it's finished.
And stained. These two pieces are sitting in a dark area indoors waiting to be finished - hopefully this weekend i can start on them. The dresser still needs one coat of poly :( I'm hoping Friday night I'll be motivated enough to finish that and put a coat on one side of the bookcase shelves.

No stitching but I did work on my craft room last night, I unpacked all my stamping supplies and put them in the cubes that I bought at ACMoore. The stamps take up 2 shelves on a bookcase and everything else fits in my organizer cubes. I've rearranged things and made a place for the above bookcase to go. I can't wait to finish this room!

Well that was a busy weekend - didn't really feel like a break. But I did get some stuff done (no stitching) -- here's my finished quilt hanger - please excuse the messy craft room, it's the only room not unpacked yet. And the microwave cart is also finished....
And already put to use!
I also got the dresser almost finished, it needs one more coat of poly tonight, then I have to do all the knobs, which are stained but no poly yet. I want to put them on the drawers sticking out before I poly them.

And lastly I finished staining the sofa table and bookcase last night so they both need 3 coats of poly - this is the last time I buy shaker style furniture UNFINISHED! All those bars are killer! But I will love these pieces when they are done!

More pics as more furniture is finished and hopefully soon I will have time again to stitch. Besides furniture I worked a bit this weekend and I think that's it. Tonight includes a trip to ACMoore to take advantage of some sales! I can't wait!!!

Well with the onset of the diet and exercise again I've started a new work schedule as well. I've decided to work from 8:30-4:30 (with an hour break for the gym) - and then go home to have dinner with my fiance. Then work from home for 2-3 hours in the peace and quiet of my office/sewing room.

This does cut out stitching time a bit but I still get a little time during the dinner break. Last night I pulled out my fishy pin from Celebrations - knotwork and worked on that a bit. I'd like to make some progress on my Celebrations pieces this weekend before starting Carol's RR but we'll see - it's hard to stay away from it!

Well back to work - it's amazing how I can get more work done in 2 hours at home than 4 hours here! Then add in the meetings and the day is just insane!

Wow thanks everyone for the great comments on my RR. I'm very happy with it and I'm very excited to stitch on Carol's next. I think I have a house pattern picked out - I will have to change the colors but that's easy, I just need to figure out the measurements for the house to see what I can fit in a block!

All finished and ready to mail tomorrow!
I ended up doing a lot more landscaping than I had anticipated but I really loved pulling different flowers from different patterns and then making some up (okay I only made one up - the little purple ones and they're just smyrnas). The veggies are all over one (so is the bunny) so that really took me a while.
And here's a picture of most of the layout. It's 10 squares, the last square will either be stitched by a close friend or I'll add a saying of some sort with everyone's names or something at the end. I will also add a title when it comes back home next year.
So this is off tomorrow to Leslie.

All in all my day went okay, I slept through a lot of it, then took some Excedrin migraine and after eating I started feeling better. I did a little unpacking (filled our bookcase) and then sat to stitch and listen to my audiobook around 4. I'm afraid I may have worn myself right back out with that 40ct (my eyes are very sensitive with migraines) so I'm going to relax before bed now.

Oh and even better - Carol's RR arrived today! I can start on that straight away!! Now to go post my pictures on the RR blog!